This invention relates generally to high speed electrical connectors, and more particularly, to electrical connectors having lead frames enclosed within molded housings.
With the ongoing trend toward smaller, faster, and higher performance electrical components such as processors used in computers, routers, switches, etc., it has become increasingly important for the electrical interfaces along the electrical paths to also operate at higher frequencies and at higher densities with increased throughput.
In a traditional approach for interconnecting circuit boards, one circuit board serves as a back plane and the other as a daughter board. The back plane typically has a connector, commonly referred to as a header, that includes a plurality of signal pins or contacts which connect to conductive traces on the back plane. The daughter board also includes a connector, commonly referred to as a receptacle, that includes a plurality of contacts or pins. Typically, the receptacle is a right angle connector that interconnects the back plane with the daughter board so that signals may be routed therebetween. The right angle connector typically includes a mating face that receives the plurality of signal pins from the header on the back plane, and contacts that connect to the daughter board.
At least some right angle connectors include a plurality of contact modules that are received in a housing. The contact modules typically include a lead frame encased in a dielectric body. The body is manufactured using an over-molding process. However, because the terminals of the lead frame tend to move and shift position during the molding process, the terminals are typically held in place during the molding process by securing members or fingers. When the securing members are removed, voids or pinch points remain in the body of the contact modules. The voids expose, to air, at least a portion of the terminals of the lead frame. Hence, certain areas between the terminals are encased in the dielectric body, while other areas are exposed to air. The transitions of the terminals between the different environments are generally non-uniform, which causes signal degradation, particularly of terminals functioning as differential pairs.
Some older connectors, which are still in use today, operate at speeds of less than one gigabit per second. By contrast, many of today's high performance connectors are capable of operating at speeds of up to ten gigabits or more per second. The signal degradation caused by the voids in the contact modules are becoming a problem in the high performance connectors in use today.
A need remains for a low cost connector with improved electrical characteristics such as reduced signal degradation and increased throughput.